Beautiful Joe - but here’s the BEST thing you wrote:
“And I thought to myself, not for the first time but probably the loudest time, that MLB has taken our beautiful game and turned it into a tawdry, cheap, and corrupt slot machine. To think that there were people out there who lost actual money because Lucas Spence faced five pitches in the bottom of the fifth inning of a 5-0 wildcard game before singling off Sean Newcombe makes me so sad.”
A pox on all the owners and the others who supported this, in pursuit of the almighty $$. And all of ours.
MLB can be so disgusting. The non-stop encouragement to bet, on basically everything. And the situation that Joe described it’s absolutely perfect for a bribe. A batter, especially a young guy who isn’t making the really big bucks, get communicated to to maybe an earpiece to stretch out the bat or to shorten it for a tidy little sum. It wouldn’t make much of a difference in a game, especially. For teams that are out of the pen, race and August. It’s a non-trivial chance that it has already happened and will continue to do so.
But what I really wanna talk about is something that hit me a lot harder than this session with betting and MLB. That is the idea that they want to build a ballpark and have a game in one of our national parks. And the Ken Burns documentary about our national parks they quote somebody making a statement something like having national parks was maybe America’s best idea. They can be crowded but her places of beauty and natural wonder. Why would anybody think about building a baseball park and have a game in one of them? My initial emotional reaction was that if this were to happen, I would divorce myself from any attachment to the game. Please let common sense and at least some people who have the power keep this from happening.
Been waiting for the appropriate time to make the above comment. Tieing it in to something else kind of disgusting seemed my chance. I wonder if when Joe will ever make a comment on this ludicrous proposal
Yeah, Joe, while I was watching the game on Peacock between the 'Stros and the team officially blessed by the Supreme Pontiff/Bishop of Rome/Bob from the South Side, hearing Jason Benetti hyping Draft Kings (plus Anthony Rizzo on the broadcast, who's a talented color commentator but also a shill for a gambling site) made my heart hurt a little bit. Man, I love Benetti - he's probably my #1 broadcaster going right now - but he's gotta read the copy in front of him. It's like he's held hostage by MLB's insatiable greed.
OK - I need to focus on the joy of the postseason and the Sox brought me some last night. My Astros-loving side of my family is annoyed with me, but that's OK, they can take it up with Leo. Hope Tommy Pham can play a part in getting the Pale Hose into the next round and they have at least one game in Sox Park.
Braves are NOT a bad baseball market. When MLB schedules a first round game at 2:00 on a weekday when people work and kids are in school you are not going to get a full house. I would make the same argument for the Astros with a 4:00 Central start time. I would consider missing work or maybe even taking the kids out of school for an WS or LCS game, but it isn;t going to happen for most folks for a WC game.
Agreed on the parlay bet and all that, but I'd like to quote a voice of our youth, Lindsey Nelson. For 17 years, it was Nelson, Ralph Kiner, and Bob Murphy doing Mets games, and that was it. No three-man crew has been together longer as the team's lone voices (yes, Gary, Ron, and Keith have been together longer, and the Giants' fearsome foursome also longer, but a lot of guest announcers have rotated in and out).
Lindsey said once that for revenue purposes, the Mets would try to get them to do a "home run inning"--if a batter homered this inning, a lucky fan would win $100 or some such. As he said, that was fine in the minors, but this was the majors. Not to mention that announcers would say, "Joe Doakes is batting for Susan Smith," and you'd wonder what position Smith played. The three of them fought it and it didn't happen.
When I first heard Mets games in the late 1980s, they were doing it ... during one of Gary Cohen's innings. Not during one of Murphy's. I have the feeling he wouldn't go for it.
great interview with Bob Costas, just terrific stories. As for the Phillies, as a baseball nerd I tend to analyze the game pitch by pitch. My wife is not a fan but she lives with it. Duran vs. Riley I say, keep the ball down and he is going to sit fastball, so throw a breaking pitch. Well we all know what happenend and my hat when flying as did the eff bombs. My wife told me to calm down. Really, the really good reliever gives up a 3 run homer and you want me to calm down when they were in the lead. And better yet, in the post game Phillies show, Ruben Amaro, Jr states that with the shadows creeping in at home plate it's hard to pick up spin on the ball so he would have like to have seen him throw some kind of breaking pitch. Thank you Ruben, I may not be a professional analyst but I do know some things. Damn Phillies bullpen. Ugh
I'll say this: If you are a mega-wealthy actor/comedian/musician and you're taking money to do online gambling ads you have morally failed as a member of the society. Would they take big tobacco money if those ads made a return? Seems they would. #dobetterkevinhart
Agreed! If I cared about any of those people - the latest to join the club being the funny but who really plans his or her calendar around him Jon Hamm - I would stop supporting their work. Please lord, keep Ted Danson and John Turturro from ever doing those ads.
I like a guy whose *paid* blog *always* starts by shilling his latest book -- and then, unironically, calls MLB cheap and tawdry for trying to make money. You've got some balls, Joe.
I suppose you could say it’s the same thing. I suppose a wealthy athlete like Giannis or some another wealthy celebrity taking presumably extremely large payouts to shill something they almost certainly don’t use and is an outright parasitic drain on society, disproportionately affecting people with less money which flows into the pocket of the already wealthy is the same as a writer trying to profit off his written word. But then again, I’m not a complete jackass with the iq of a grapefruit, so I don’t actually think that’s a reasonable comparison.
Hmmmm. There's gotta be a word for when a commenter has the balls to unironically call someone else out for having some balls. But I wonder what that word is. Hmmm.
I think the Astros are done. They limped into the playoffs and after yesterday’s loss, I just don’t have any confidence that they’ll win this series. I hate to be so pessimistic about my hometown team, but I just don’t see it happening
And chances are the owners will lock out the players in order to help their bottom lines even more. (It does occur to me that maybe the gambling sites would be the strongest forces OPPOSED to the lockout since their revenues are going to go down. Not that I dislike them any less, just a bit of irony.)
Totally agree that the way gambling has invaded the sport is absolutely terrible. That said, I find it easy enough to ignore.
The Cubs' vaunted offense has scored 15 runs in the last seven games. Something's gotta change -- though, these are the Cubbies we're talking about.
Beautiful Joe - but here’s the BEST thing you wrote:
“And I thought to myself, not for the first time but probably the loudest time, that MLB has taken our beautiful game and turned it into a tawdry, cheap, and corrupt slot machine. To think that there were people out there who lost actual money because Lucas Spence faced five pitches in the bottom of the fifth inning of a 5-0 wildcard game before singling off Sean Newcombe makes me so sad.”
A pox on all the owners and the others who supported this, in pursuit of the almighty $$. And all of ours.
MLB can be so disgusting. The non-stop encouragement to bet, on basically everything. And the situation that Joe described it’s absolutely perfect for a bribe. A batter, especially a young guy who isn’t making the really big bucks, get communicated to to maybe an earpiece to stretch out the bat or to shorten it for a tidy little sum. It wouldn’t make much of a difference in a game, especially. For teams that are out of the pen, race and August. It’s a non-trivial chance that it has already happened and will continue to do so.
But what I really wanna talk about is something that hit me a lot harder than this session with betting and MLB. That is the idea that they want to build a ballpark and have a game in one of our national parks. And the Ken Burns documentary about our national parks they quote somebody making a statement something like having national parks was maybe America’s best idea. They can be crowded but her places of beauty and natural wonder. Why would anybody think about building a baseball park and have a game in one of them? My initial emotional reaction was that if this were to happen, I would divorce myself from any attachment to the game. Please let common sense and at least some people who have the power keep this from happening.
Been waiting for the appropriate time to make the above comment. Tieing it in to something else kind of disgusting seemed my chance. I wonder if when Joe will ever make a comment on this ludicrous proposal
Baseball ruined pennant races so they could have playoff games at 2 pm on weekdays that no one sees
Yeah, Joe, while I was watching the game on Peacock between the 'Stros and the team officially blessed by the Supreme Pontiff/Bishop of Rome/Bob from the South Side, hearing Jason Benetti hyping Draft Kings (plus Anthony Rizzo on the broadcast, who's a talented color commentator but also a shill for a gambling site) made my heart hurt a little bit. Man, I love Benetti - he's probably my #1 broadcaster going right now - but he's gotta read the copy in front of him. It's like he's held hostage by MLB's insatiable greed.
OK - I need to focus on the joy of the postseason and the Sox brought me some last night. My Astros-loving side of my family is annoyed with me, but that's OK, they can take it up with Leo. Hope Tommy Pham can play a part in getting the Pale Hose into the next round and they have at least one game in Sox Park.
Say what you will about the Yankees but at least they sold out the game. Padres fans tool
Braves and Astros, not so much. Two really bad baseball markets.
Alan,
Braves are NOT a bad baseball market. When MLB schedules a first round game at 2:00 on a weekday when people work and kids are in school you are not going to get a full house. I would make the same argument for the Astros with a 4:00 Central start time. I would consider missing work or maybe even taking the kids out of school for an WS or LCS game, but it isn;t going to happen for most folks for a WC game.
Not a Pads fan nor a Pads hater, so no dog in the fight. But . . .
. . . here and on the Poscast, Joe keeps talking about Mason Miller as if he's, you know, Mason Miller. But . . .
. . . since August 24, over 14 games, Miller has thrown 15.2 IP and K'd his usual 30 guys. But . . .
. . . he's also walked 7, given up 13 hits including 3 HRs, and yielded 9 runs, all earned.
For those scoring at home, that's a 1.277 WHIP and a 5.17 ERA over the past month.
Are we sure all's right in the right arm of Mr. Miller? Or that he'll be, you know, Mason Miller in the postseason?
Roman Anthony apparently came back too soon. Let's hope he doesn't go all Nomar without even having the great years first.
Agreed on the parlay bet and all that, but I'd like to quote a voice of our youth, Lindsey Nelson. For 17 years, it was Nelson, Ralph Kiner, and Bob Murphy doing Mets games, and that was it. No three-man crew has been together longer as the team's lone voices (yes, Gary, Ron, and Keith have been together longer, and the Giants' fearsome foursome also longer, but a lot of guest announcers have rotated in and out).
Lindsey said once that for revenue purposes, the Mets would try to get them to do a "home run inning"--if a batter homered this inning, a lucky fan would win $100 or some such. As he said, that was fine in the minors, but this was the majors. Not to mention that announcers would say, "Joe Doakes is batting for Susan Smith," and you'd wonder what position Smith played. The three of them fought it and it didn't happen.
When I first heard Mets games in the late 1980s, they were doing it ... during one of Gary Cohen's innings. Not during one of Murphy's. I have the feeling he wouldn't go for it.
great interview with Bob Costas, just terrific stories. As for the Phillies, as a baseball nerd I tend to analyze the game pitch by pitch. My wife is not a fan but she lives with it. Duran vs. Riley I say, keep the ball down and he is going to sit fastball, so throw a breaking pitch. Well we all know what happenend and my hat when flying as did the eff bombs. My wife told me to calm down. Really, the really good reliever gives up a 3 run homer and you want me to calm down when they were in the lead. And better yet, in the post game Phillies show, Ruben Amaro, Jr states that with the shadows creeping in at home plate it's hard to pick up spin on the ball so he would have like to have seen him throw some kind of breaking pitch. Thank you Ruben, I may not be a professional analyst but I do know some things. Damn Phillies bullpen. Ugh
I'll say this: If you are a mega-wealthy actor/comedian/musician and you're taking money to do online gambling ads you have morally failed as a member of the society. Would they take big tobacco money if those ads made a return? Seems they would. #dobetterkevinhart
Agreed! If I cared about any of those people - the latest to join the club being the funny but who really plans his or her calendar around him Jon Hamm - I would stop supporting their work. Please lord, keep Ted Danson and John Turturro from ever doing those ads.
I like a guy whose *paid* blog *always* starts by shilling his latest book -- and then, unironically, calls MLB cheap and tawdry for trying to make money. You've got some balls, Joe.
This is a really embarrassing thing to post. It's not too late to delete this comment.
I suppose you could say it’s the same thing. I suppose a wealthy athlete like Giannis or some another wealthy celebrity taking presumably extremely large payouts to shill something they almost certainly don’t use and is an outright parasitic drain on society, disproportionately affecting people with less money which flows into the pocket of the already wealthy is the same as a writer trying to profit off his written word. But then again, I’m not a complete jackass with the iq of a grapefruit, so I don’t actually think that’s a reasonable comparison.
Hmmmm. There's gotta be a word for when a commenter has the balls to unironically call someone else out for having some balls. But I wonder what that word is. Hmmm.
Might it start with an "I" and end with a "C"?
I suppose the difference between reading and gambling can be a bit hard to discern for some.
I think the Astros are done. They limped into the playoffs and after yesterday’s loss, I just don’t have any confidence that they’ll win this series. I hate to be so pessimistic about my hometown team, but I just don’t see it happening
The BetMGM sign on the outfield fence at the Field of Dreams game tells you all you need to now about what Rob Manfred thinks about the game.
And chances are the owners will lock out the players in order to help their bottom lines even more. (It does occur to me that maybe the gambling sites would be the strongest forces OPPOSED to the lockout since their revenues are going to go down. Not that I dislike them any less, just a bit of irony.)